Professional Interests

Specialization/expertise:

Nephrology, Transplant Nephrology.

Current Role:

Medical Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program and Director of Transplant Nephrology Fellowship

Medical degree:

Ege University Medical School, Izmir, Turkey
Internship and Residency: Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta
Fellowship: Research fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Clinical Nephrology Fellowship at Boston University Medical School, Transplant Nephrology Fellowship at Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta

Research:

Dr. Akalin’s main research interest is investigating mechanisms of allograft injury using microarray technology and immune monitoring of kidney transplant recipients and kidney transplantation in highly sensitized patients. He has had involved in multiple NIH studies and has active RO1 grant. He was also involved in more than 20 multicenter clinical trials as a site principal investigator.

Awards/Honors/Accomplishments:

Dr. Akalin received Young Investigator Travel Award of the American Society of Transplant Physicians twice and received American Society of Transplant Physicians Council’s Faculty Grant. Dr. Akalin served at American Society of Transplantation, Clinical Trials Committee Member, and chaired American Society of Transplantation Transplant Nephrology Fellowship Accreditation Committee, Transplantation and Immunology Research Network, Clinical Science Grant Review Committee, Fellow of American Society of Transplantation Committee and Board of Directors for Transplant Nephrology Fellowship.

Dr. Akalin had served at Medical Board and Research and Ethics Sub-committee of New York Organ Donor Network. He had served at American Society of Nephrology, Transplantation Advisory Group. Dr. Akalin served at Editorial Board of Transplantation and Clinical Journal of American Society of Nephrology.

Dr. Akalin is the past president of New York Society of Nephrology in 2016-2017 academic year.

Affiliations:

Dr. Akalin is currently the fellow of the American Society of Nephrology (FASN) and American Society of Transplantation (FAST).

Publications:

Dr. Akalin has authored or co-authored more than 110 original scientific articles, review articles and book chapters.

Selected Publications

1. Marfo K, Lu A, Ling M, Akalin E. Desensitization protocols and their outcomes. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 2011; 6 : 922-936
2. Marfo K, Ling M, Bao Y, Calder B, Ye B, Greenstein S, Chapochnick-Friedman J, Glicklich D, de Boccardo G, Kinkhabwala M, and Akalin E. Lack of effect in desensitization with intravenous immunoglobulin and rituximab in highly-sensitized patients at the top of the waiting list. (Transplantation 2012; 94 : 345-351)
3. Ling M, Masiakos P, Ibrahim A, Lindower J, Marfo K, Glicklich D, de Boccardo G, Greenstein S, Chapochnick-Friedmann J, Kinkhabwala M, and Akalin E. The prevalence and significance of HLA-Cw and HLA-DP antibodies in sensitized patients on the kidney transplant waiting list. (Human Immunology 2012; 73 : 879-883)
4. Nicole Hayde, Yi Bao, James Pullman, Bin Ye, Brent R. Calder, Monica Chung, DanielSchwartz, Ahmed Alansari, Graciela de Boccardo, Min Ling and Enver Akalin.The clinical and molecular significance of C4d staining patterns in renal allografts (Transplantation 2013; 95(4): 580-588).
5. Nicole Hayde, Yi Bao, James Pullman, Bin Ye, R. Brent Calder, Monica Chung, Daniel Schwartz, Michelle Lubetzky, Maria Ajaimy, Graciela de Boccardo and Enver Akalin. The clinical and genomic significance of donor-specific antibody (DSA) positive/C4d negative and DSA negative/C4d negative transplant glomerulopathy. (Clin J Am Soc of Nephrol 2013; 8: 2141-2148).
6. Nicole Hayde, Pilib Ó Broin, Yi Bao, Graciela de Boccardo, Michelle Lubetzky, Maria Ajaimy, James Pullman, Adriana Colavai, Aaron Golden, and Enver Akalin. Increased rejection-associated gene transcripts in patients with donor-specific antibodies and normal biopsies. Kidney International 2014; 86(3) : 600-609
7. Michelle Lubetzky, Yi Bao, Pilib Ó Broin, Kwaku Marfo, Maria Ajaimy, Aws Aljanabi, Graciela de Boccardo, Aaron Golden, and Enver Akalin. Genomics of BK viremia in kidney transplant recipients. (Transplantation 2014; 97: 451-456)
8. Pre-transplant immunologic risk assessment of kidney transplant recipients with donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies. Kwaku Marfo, Maria Ajaimy, Adriana Colovai, Liise Kayler, Stuart Greenstein, Michelle Lubetzky, Anjali Gupta, Layla Kamal, Graciela de Boccardo, Peter Masiakos, Milan Kinkhabwala, and Enver Akalin. Transplantation 2014; 98: 1082-1088.
9. Layla Kamal, Pilib Ó Broin, Yi Bao, Maria Ajaimy, Michelle Lubetzky, Anjali Gupta, Graciela de Boccardo, James Pullman, Aaron Golden, and Enver Akalin. Clinical, histological, and molecular markers associated with allograft loss in transplant glomerulopathy patients. Transplantation 2015, 99(9); 1912-1918
10. Anjali Gupta, Pilib Ó Broin, Yi Bao, James Pullman, Layla Kamal, Maria Ajaimy, Michelle Lubetzky, Adriana Colovai, Daniel Schwartz, Graciela de Boccardo, Aaron Golden and Enver Akalin. Clinical and molecular significance of microvascular inflammation in transplant kidney biopsies. Kidney International 2016; 89: 217-225
11. Sumeyye Calp-Inal, Maria Ajaimy, Michal L. Melamed, Christina Savchik, Peter Masiakos, Adriana Colovai and Enver Akalin. The prevalence and clinical significance of C1q binding donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies early and late after kidney transplantation. Kidney International 2016; 89: 209-21
12. Ajaimy M, Lubetzky M, Jones T, Kamal L, Colovai A, de Boccardo G, Akalin E. Pregnancy in sensitized kidney transplant recipients: a single center experience. Clinical Transplantation 2016; 30(7): 791-795
13. Michelle Lubetzky, Soohwan Chun, Andrew Joelson, Maria Coco, Layla Kamal, Maria Ajaimy, Paul Gaglio, Enver Akalin and Graciela Deboccardo. Safety and Efficacy of Treatment of Hepatitis C in Kidney Transplant Recipients with Directly Acting Antiviral Agents. Transplantation 2017; 101: 1704-1710.
14. A Loupy, M Haas, K Solez, L Racusen, D Glotz, D Seron, B Nankivell, R B Colvin, M. Afrouzian, E. Akalin, N. Alachkar, S. Bagnasco, J. Becker, L. Cornell, C Drachenberg, D Dragun, I. Gibson, E S Kraus, C. Lefaucheur, H. Liapis, T Muthukumar, V. Nickeleit, B. Orandi, M Rabant, P. Randhawa, E Reed C. Roufosse, S. Sehan, B. Sis, S. Singh, C. Schinstock, A Tambur, A Zeevi, M. Mengel. The Banff 2015 Kidney meeting report: Current challenges in rejection classification and prospects for adopting molecular pathology. Am J Transpl 2017; 17: 28-41
15. Colovai AI, Ajaimy M, Kamal LG, Masiakos P, Chan S, Savchik C, Lubetzky M, de Boccardo G, Courson A, Chokechanachaisakul A, Graham J, Greenstein S, Kinkhabwala M, Rocca J, Akalin E. Increased Access to Transplantation of Highly Sensitized Patients Under the New Kidney Allocation System. A Single Center Experience. Human Immunol 2017; 78: 257-262.
16. Philip F. Halloran, Enver Akalin, Olivier Aubert, Georg Bohmig, Daniel Brennan, Jonathan Bromberg, Gunilla Einecke, Farsad Eskandary, Clement Gosset, Gaurav Gupta, Carmen Lefaucheur, Andrew Malone, Daniel Seron, Joana Sellares, Matt Weir, and Alexandre Loupy. Real time central assessment of kidney transplant indication biopsies by microarrays: The INTERCOMEX Study. Am J Transpl 2017, 17 : 2851-2862
17. Efficacy DNA methylation on progression to interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy renal allograft biopsies. A multi-omics approach. Bontha SV, Maluf DG, Archer KJ, Dumur CI, Dozmorov MG, King AL, Akalin E, Mueller TF, Gallon L, Mas VR. Am J Transplant. 2017
18. The Banff 2017 Kidney Meeting Report: Revised Diagnostic Criteria for Chronic Active T Cell-Mediated Rejection, Antibody-Mediated Rejection, and Prospects for Integrative Endpoints for Next-Generation Clinical Trials. M Haas, A Loupy, C Lefaucheur, C Roufosse, D Glotz, D Seron, B J Nankivell, P F Halloran, R B Colvin, E. Akalin, N Alachkar, S Bagnasco, Y Bouatou, J U Becker, L Cornell, JP Duong van Huyen, I Gibson, R Mannon, M Naesens, V Nickeleit, P Nickerson, D L Segev, H K Singh, M Stegall, P Randhawa, L Racusen, K Solez, M Mengel. Am J Transplant. 2018 Feb;18(2):293-307
19. Deceased-donor acute kidney injury is not associated with kidney allograft failure. Hall  IE, Akalin E, Bromberg JS, Doshi MD, Greene T, Harhay MN, Jia Y, Mansour SG, Mohan S, Muthukumar T, Reese PP, Schröppel B, Singh P, Thiessen-Philbrook HR, Weng FL, Parikh CR. Kidney Int. 2019 Jan;95(1):199-209
20. Molecular Signatures and Clinical Outcomes of Transplant Glomerulopathy Stratified by Microvascular Inflammation and Donor-Specific Antibody. Lubetzky M, Hayde N, Ó Broin P, Ajaimy M, Bao Y, Mohammed O, Schwartz D, Pullman J, Akalin E. Clin Transplant. 2018 Dec 22:e13469
21. Peri-transplant eculizumab does not prevent delayed kidney function in deceased donor kidney transplant recipients: results of two randomized controlled pilot trials. Schröppel B, Akalin E, Baweja M, Bloom RD, Florman S, Goldstein M, Haydel B, Hricik DE, Kulkarni S, Levine M, Mehrotra A, Patel A, Poggio ED, Ratner L, Shapiro R, Heeger PS. Am J Transplant. 2019 Aug    
22. Assessment of Organ Quality in Kidney Transplantation by Molecular Analysis and Why It May Not Have Been Achieved, Yet. von Moos S, Akalin E, Mas V, Mueller TF. Front Immunol. 2020 May 12;11:833
23. COVID-19 and Solid Organ Transplantation: A Review Article. Azzi Y, Bartash R, Scalea J,  Loarte-Campos P, Akalin E.Transplantation. 2021 Jan 1;105(1):37-55

24. COVID-19 and kidney transplantation. Akalin E, Azzi Y, Bartash R, Seethamraju H,

    Parides M, Hemmige V, Ross M, Forest S, Goldstein YD, Ajaimy M, Liriano-

    Ward L, Pynadath C, Loarte-Campos P, Nandigam PB, Graham J, Le M, Rocca J, Kinkhabwala M. N Engl J Med. 2020 Apr 24

25. A CRISPR-based Assay for the Detection of Opportunistic Infections Post-Transplantation and for the Monitoring of Transplant Rejection.  Kaminski MM,   Alcantar MA, Lape IT, Greensmith R,  Huske AC, Valeri JA, Marty FM, Klämbt  V, Azzi J, Akalin E, Riella LV, Collins JJ. Nat  Biomed Eng. 2020 Apr 13

26. Glycemic management and clinical outcomes in underserved minority kidney transplant recipients with type 2 and posttransplantation diabetes: A single-center retrospective study. Aleksic S, Eisenberg R, Tsomos E, Zahedpour Anaraki S, Japp E, Upadhyay L, Mowrey WB, Akalin E, Zonszein J. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2020 May 20;165:108221

27. Banff 2019 Meeting Report: Molecular diagnostics in solid organ transplantation - Consensus for the Banff Human Organ Transplant (B-HOT) gene panel and open source multicenter validation. Mengel M, Loupy A, Haas M, Roufosse C, Naesens M, Akalin E, Clahsen-van Groningen MC, J Dagobert, Demetris AJ, Duong van Huyen JP, Gueguen J, Issa F, Robin B, Rosales I, Von der Thüsen JH, Sanchez-Fueyo A, Smith RN, Wood K, Adam B, Colvin RB. Am J Transplant. 2020 May 19.

28. The Banff 2019 Kidney Meeting Report (I): Updates on and clarification of criteria for T cell- and antibody-mediated rejection. Loupy A, Haas M, Roufosse C, Naesens M, Adam B, Afrouzian M, Akalin E, Alachkar N, Bagnasco S, Becker JU, Cornell LD, Clahsen-van Groningen MC, Demetris AJ, Dragun D, Duong van Huyen JP, Farris AB, Fogo AB, Gibson IW, Glotz D, Gueguen J, Kikic Z, Kozakowski N, Kraus E, Lefaucheur C, Liapis H, Mannon RB,Montgomery RA, Nankivell BJ, Nickeleit V, Nickerson P, Rabant M, Racusen L,Randhawa P, Robin B, Rosales IA, Sapir-Pichhadze R, Schinstock CA, Seron D,Singh HK, Smith RN, Stegall MD, Zeevi A, Solez K, Colvin RB, Mengel M. Am J Transplant. 2020 May

29. Peri-transplant eculizumab does not prevent delayed kidney function in deceased donor kidney transplant recipients: results of two randomized controlled pilot trials. Schröppel B, Akalin E, Baweja M, Bloom RD, Florman S, Goldstein M, Haydel B, Hricik DE, Kulkarni S, Levine M, Mehrotra A, Patel A, Poggio ED, Ratner L, Shapiro R, Heeger PS. Am J Transplant. 2020 Feb;20(2):564-572